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Recommended daily reading – 17 September (day late edition)

On MTV’s Spash Page is a story about Anthony Bourdain writing a graphic novel for DC (presumably on Vertigo) that is “sort of like ‘Fistful of Dollars’ meets ‘Eat Drink Man Woman.'”

In the article, Bourdain’s references are all cinematic, which is not entirely confidence inspiring, and while I think that Douglas Wolk is generally right about avoiding comics with celebrity names slapped on them, Bourdain is a talented writer, with both fiction and non-fiction works to his credit, and he strikes me as someone who probably understands genre and form well enough to adapt his talents to comics. In any case, he seems smart enough to do a good job, and this notice has me curious.

Ben Gilbert at Panels on Pages writes a defense of Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003). I also think that this film is disproportionately maligned, and that it will likely have a very different position in the history of Marvel adaptions than its initial reception would indicate. Gilbert focuses on Lee’s ambition and A-list cast. One point about the former that I think merits more attention is Lee’s creative use of comic-like panels to show the action from different perspectives, sometimes simultaneously. Most adaptations of superhero comics are made as conventional action films, and as Gilbert notes, Lee’s Hulk, if nothing else, stands out for not being that.

Finally, on Torontoist is a story about Stiffed, a festival for those films rejectected by TIFF – the Toronto International Film Festival. Having had a few frustrating experiences with peer review, with both print and film, I admire the ambition of the new festival’s founders and wish them the best.